TRAXAMILLION  (August 2006) | Interview By: Lil Jay

   

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Interview was done in August 2006

Questions Asked By: Lil Jay

Traxamillion Gave Dubcnn.com A Shoutout! Check That Here

Full Interview Audio Here

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Related Media (Mentioned in/relating to the interview):

Too Short Feat. Mista Fab - Sideshow (Prod. by Traxamillion) (Audio)

Traxamillion - Bring It Back (Audio)

Traxamillion & Clyde Carson - On CBS News (Video)


Traxamillion's "The Slapp Addict" Is In Stores Now!

Visit myspace.com/traxxamillion for more info

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Dubcnn: Can you talk about your background and how you came up in this game?

Traxamillion: Basically, I started off rapping in junior high in a underground group. I just continued my little rapping career in high school. And early in high school I started making beats and producing for the groups that I was rapping for. At the time I was in a group called Lack A Days Ago, and after that I was in a group called The High. But all that time I was producing for my groups and that's basically where I got my production skills from.



Dubcnn: And how do you balance that out nowadays?

Traxamillion: Nowadays, I've gone to the backseat of the mic but I'm still active on the mic because I do a lot of hosting. I jump on top of my track like I'm DJ Clue baby, or I jump on some hooks. And every now and then you get a verse. When you check out my album "The Slap Addict", I got two songs where I'm actually rapping. But the rest of the album I'm hosting tracks or I'm on the hook. A lot of songs people don't really know I'm on. So I'm still vocal.



Dubcnn: "Bring It Back", is that one of them?

Traxamillion: Yeah! "Bring It Back"! That's my favorite joint! People don't know, that's gonna be a hit one day baby!



Dubcnn: When did people really start to recognize your name?

Traxamillion: Probably 2005 when I hooked up with the boy Keak. I was doing some beats for a record label called Rah Records, and they actually ended up using one of the beats that I sold them on a compilation called "The Dope Game". And the song they used was called "What You Want" featuring Bone Crusher, Keak Da Sneak, and B.A.. So when I heard that, I run out to Rasputins and bought one of them "Dopegame" record and was like 'What the hell is this, Traxamillion is on here!' So I skipped to my track, and it was my beat so I was like 'Aww shit!'.

So I looked on the back of the CD cause it had the contact information. So I called up Al and got back in contact with them. I went to the studio, had a sit down with them. Al said 'Man, we've been looking for you!' and I was like 'Shit, nigga I been looking for y'all!'. So Al said 'You know we got this situation with Keak, right?'. I was like 'Really? Is the album done? Let me get on it, please!'. So me being who I am, Traxamillion baby, I had to be on it. So they were listening to the beats and they liked it. And the very next day he called me up, and Keak was rapping over one of my beats. It actually was the song "Contact Sport", from his "Contact Sport" album. People don't know I did that beat. Traxamillion produced "Contact Sport", for all y'all naysayers!



Dubcnn: So did you start producing on a major level around the time hyphy started blowing up?

Traxamillion: It was definitely after The Federation dropped "Hyphy". It was really around the time that "It's Gettin' Hot In Here" by The Team was real hot. And the hyphy movement was already in effect, really. I don't think people quote that the hyphy movement, but the actual movement was already alive in the streets.



Dubcnn: So you kinda blend in with the sound?

Traxamillion: You know I just blend in, I just added my little input in the hyphy movement. There is a controversy going around that mothafuckas calling Traxamillion the king of slap, who's the king of the real hyphy movement and all this. Man I don't care about all this, I know I didn't start the hyphy movement. I'm here to put my little input in. I know I definitely help pave the way, but I know I didn't create it and I'm not trying to take the crown for starting the hyphy movement.



Dubcnn: How difficult was it to adjust to this sound, which was new for the Bay?

Traxamillion: Really man, I've been making beats like this all my life. I been making hot ass beats when I had no equipment. When I had a cheap ass keyboard, cheap ass little sequencer, and a punk ass drum machine. And I didn't even have to loop, I wasn't looping none of my beats. I was sitting playing my beats all the way through live. I was still making hits, beats that can be heard on the radio, beats that you can hear P. Diddy rap over. Cause that was just my whole little mindstate. I didn't care what I had. And that came across the music. So it wasn't hard for me man, cause I was always making beats like this. I've always had people tell me that I'm making beats ahead of my time.



Dubcnn: People were talking about bringing the Bay back. Is this where it belongs today, or is there more potential behind it?

Traxamillion: Yeah yeah yeah! Definitely man, this is only just scratching the surface. This is just the beginning of the Bay. The music we've been doing, the Turfs, the Fab's, Keak, and 40, even me, we've been doing our music so long in the Bay, we barely scratching the surface as far as the rest of the world. But underneath us there is a whole younger generation of kids, 15 and 16 years old. They're getting inspired by our music. I've been listening to some of their music and their music is dope. They coming up with new ideas that us niggas haven't been coming up with. They got a whole little movement, so I think this is only the beginning. They got a lot more to offer, we're gonna be hearing a lot more new innovative sounds that's coming up out of here. Mark my words.



Dubcnn: So with all these new artists poppin' up left and right, do you think that the hyphy movement is too crowded?

Traxamillion: I think people might get it twisted. Out here in the Bay, the hyphy movement might seem too crowded. Everytime you turn on the radio, there's a song that says go dumb, hyphy, thizz, or ghostride your whip. So I get a lot of mothafuckas coming up to me talking about 'Man the hyphy movement is getting old, we got one more year and the hyphy movement is over!'. That shit is old to us, cause we live here. That shit gets played on our radio stations all day, and we get bombared with hyphy groups left and right. But the rest of the world don't know nothing about it. The rest of the world knows about "Tell Me When To Go", "Super Hyphy", and maybe a couple of other joints. They don't know nothing about everything that's going on here. But I be telling cats like, Man, we gotta keep promoting the hyphy movement cause that's what getting us on. It would just be stupid for us to stop.



Dubcnn: Do you think it's gonna fade out first locally or nationally?

Traxamillion: I don't know if it's gonna fade out locally, because everybody is a big Bay Area supporter. The Bay has always been on the Bay's back, we've always been on our own nuts. So I don't know if it's gonna fade out here, it might fade out to the rest of the world before here. But I do know that it sounds repetitive to us cause we live here, but the rest of the world don't know about that shit man.



Dubcnn: The local people almost have to support it.

Traxamillion: Yeah, you gotta do it. Even if you don't wanna say hyphy in your songs, you ain't gotta sit there and do all that shit. So you know, we gotta stay consistent. And that's the only way we gonna get on.



Dubcnn: Do you still get confronted a lot about the comparisons of the hyphy sound and crunk music?

Traxamillion: Uhhm, nah. I don't. The only comparison that I hear is that the hyphy movement is like the crunk movement. When they had crunk, it really wasn't nothing to it, it was just crunk. That's how they got down. And that's how we get down, we hyphy out here. So that's really the only comparison that I've heard as far as the crunk vs. the hyphy. Same shit, it's all feel good music. It's just different swagger, that's they swagger in the South, and that's our swagger out here in the West.



Dubcnn: Some people even use the word biting.

Traxamillion: Biting? I wouldn't.... that's a strong word. Yeah I think biting is a real strong word. Influences is a better word.



Dubcnn: Southern and Northern Cali is kinda seperate at times, except for some collabos here and there. There's alot of different opinions on that. Some say it should stay seperate cause it's time for the Bay to get its shine. Others say there should be more unity. What is your opinion on that?

Traxamillion: I'm always about unity but right now I'm more focused on Bay Area unity, cause I feel like the spotlight is on us right now. Niggas ain't gon' get out the bottom fighting with eachother. I hear that about a lot of New York cats. New York is one big thing, all those 5 boroughs. A while ago New York was on top, and that's when all those boroughs was coming together. But now it's just like boroughs ain't getting along and the artists ain't eating. The South done took over cause the West can't get along and the East can't get along, so the South came together and got the fuck on. And they ain't dropped the ball since.

So I'm kinda in that same thing, all of us in the Bay, we all gotta stick together. It's all about unity, we ain't gonna get nowhere fighting eachother, beefing with eachother. Niggas is fighting to be the king of the bottom. We gotta go out there and really make it happen, and make it happen on a nationwide scale. Shit, I think L.A. and the Bay should be connected anyway. L.A., Diego, the Bay, all of us. We should just network and really make it happen. I'm more focused on Bay Area unity, but I ain't got nothing against Cali unity.



Dubcnn: So you're finally putting out your album, "The Slapp Addict". Can you talk about what people can expect?

Traxamillion: "The Slapp Addict" album coming August 22nd! It's gonna be crazy baby! It's basically my album comprised of the Bay Area's finest handpicked talents. We got everybody on the album. Let me go down the line: We got Smitty Grandz, Turf Talk, The Hoodstarz, Too Short, [Mista] Fab, Traxamillion, Clyde Carson, San Quinn, Keak, Husalah, Jacka, Balance, my man Izz Thizz, we even got Zion I on there, we got The Pack, Star Studded, Killa Keise. Man it goes down! The album is gonna be a real big album. By the way I wanna take the time out and thank all the artists that came together and helped me put this album together. Because without the artists, the album would be nothing. I'm just the producer. They actually put the songs together to really make it happen. So I wanna give a big shout out to all the artists that helped "The Slapp Addict" come together. Without them I would be nothing!

But yeah man, the album is gonna be big. It's kinda like a "Chronic 2001" or when the Neptunes did the "Clones" album. It's a producer driven album, a compilation of stuff of some of your favorite songs on the radio. Basically all the stuff that I produced to showcase my talent and the different angles I come from. Basically putting a clean ass soundtrack to this Bay Area sound, that's basically what I wanted to do.



Dubcnn: How would you define the sound on the album?

Traxamillion: I would say it's definitely a club sound. Traxamillion sound is club. That's how I get down. Everything I try to do, I try to make it big and I try to make it clubby. Even if it's a slow joint, I want that shit to be a slow club classic. So the whole feel of the album is really clubby, and I got a couple laid back joints, like from The Team. But for the most part it's just adding that club element to the Bay that I felt was missing. Some songs are upbeat and drum heavy, some songs have a lot of melody in them. I got a flow little R&B feeling on there that you wouldn't hear from Traxamillion. So I kinda go everywhere with it, it's just really giving you a feeling of what I'm capable of.



Dubcnn: Do you think it's important to have a signature sound, especially with a lot of producer using the similar sounds today?

Traxamillion: Yeah, Yeah! Me, I like to use my signature sounds. I kinda like to use the same sounds a lot. That's what cats in the game dig, you know? I kinda followed the steps of successful people before me like Dre, Neptunes, or Timbaland. Anybody who's a successful producer. If you listen to their first beats, a lot sound the same. Like you could pinpoint a Neptunes beat when they first came out. Neptunes did this, Neptunes did that! Or Timbaland did this, Timbaland did that! He kept using the same sounds and everytime the beat came on you knew it was him. So that's basically the same formula I use. So when you hear a Traxamillion track, you know it's me. And you know when cats start biting - hopefully that's where it goes, cause biting is the greatest form of flattery - I'll switch my sound up, just like everybody else did.



Dubcnn: How much work did you put into rapping on the new album?

Traxamillion: I would say not that much. But the two songs where it's me rapping, I really sat down and wrote them songs. I'm really feeling them. Before when I used to rap, raps used to just come to me like nothing. I used to just know exactly what I wanted. But nowadays I be making hot ass beats, but sometimes they just don't move me. It takes another MC to get on top of it to move me. So with these last two songs, they basically wrote themselves. And that's just how it happens nowadays. Sometimes a song will come up outta me, and sometimes it don't. Sometimes a hook will come up out of me. It all depends on what the music is doing.



Dubcnn: As far as being a producer that raps, do you feel that you'll be held to a higher standard lyrically?

Traxamillion: Uhh, I don't know. I ain't really trippin man. I'm just doing what I do naturally. If I put it out there and the people love my raps and they wanna hear Traxamillion spit, then Traxamillion is gonna spit. If I put it out there and they ain't really fuckin' with Traxamillion as a rapper, I ain't really trippin! (laughs). I still make beats and I still do my thang. I'm really just puttin' it out there to see what it is, and how people take to me and what I'm doing.



Dubcnn: How much would you say is a producer responsible for the success of a project, say for your or any producer's album. How do you weight that?

Traxamillion: I'd like to think that... a while ago it used to be more about the lyrical content, and I used to be a firm believer of that. I used to be one of them dudes sitting there and arguing down to the teeth about how the lyrics was more important than the beat. But nowadays, I'm on the other side. Me, I think music is a lot more beat driven now, cause that's the first thing that you fuckin hear when the song comes on the radio. And that's what you dance to. So if the beat is wack, your song has a good possibility of being wack. But I also think that the rapper plays a huge contribution to that, cause the rapper brings it out to life. Sometimes there's beats that I've made that I dind't like, then somebody would jump on top of it and it would turn into something I never even thought about it. I'd be like 'Damn I didn't even hear that! OK, I like the beat now. I hear what you was talking about!'.

So I don't know... I think nowadays music is a lot more producer driven. The producer has to carry a lot more weight on his shoulders, because everybody wants to slap now and everybody wants their music to sound good. But there's been songs where mothafuckers been weak on top of the song, these are proven cases that they weak! And the beat is just so slappin' that you just don't give a got damn! You're like Fuck it! (laughs)



Dubcnn: What do you consider your biggest hit yet?

Traxamillion: Definitely "Super Hyphy".



Dubcnn: Does this song reflect as your personal favorite song or is it just the song with the most success?

Traxamillion: That song has the most success and it's one of my favorite songs. It's both. That song did a lot for the Bay, it sparked a breath of life into the hyphy movement. The hyphy movement was already going and moving, but when that song came out it caught national attention and gave the hyphy movement a second win.



Dubcnn: Did you get any recognition from other countries for that song?

Traxamillion: Yeah! I mean now I get recognition for it. But for like the first 5 or 6 months of that song when it came out I was just so in shock and in awe, I just kinda stayed on the low. I was going out to the club like every week and they was droppin "Supery Hyphy" in the mix, and I was just standing in the background and just watched mothafuckers go crazy, and watched the DJ run it back. At the part of the song where it goes 'Hold it down for the Bay reppin Oakland!', and they just ran it back, ran it from the top. And they'd do that shit like three times, and I'd just be in the back of the club like 'What, this shit is crazy!'.



Dubcnn: You made an appearance on CBS together with Clyde Carson a while ago. That was a pretty good look huh?

Traxamillion: Yeah! That was big man, that was big! Shout outs to my boy Adisa, "Lyrical Swords", go check that out! But I got a lot of feedback from that, nationwide feedback. That was a real good look to get on the news and to be able to explain the hyphy movement to an audience that might not be familiar with it.



Dubcnn: Your folks even called you in the middle of the show!

Traxamillion: Yeah yeah! (laughs) They called me in the middle of the show! If you look at the tape, I was nervous as hell. The first time absolutely ever on TV, so I was nervous the whole time! I look back at it now and I don't really look that nervous. But man I'm telling you, the whole time I was nervous as hell! My hands was shaking and I damn near knocked over the table. If you rewind the tape you can see I damn near stood up and knocked the table over! (laughs) I made it, but that was a big moment for me man!



Dubcnn: Another thing that had me rollin was when the lady asked you if "The Slapp Addict" stood for slapping people.

Traxamillion: Yeah!! (laughs). For people who don't know, "The Slapp Addict" is a Bay Area term for 'your shit is hittin', 'that shit is knockin', 'that shit slaps'! So I'm addicted to slap, cause all my shit slaps. So I thought what better title to call my project than "The Slapp Addict". You know what part that had me rollin is when I damn near knocked over the table, everybody at the table saw that I damn near knocked over the table, but then after that everybody just kinda acted like it didn't happen! It was kinda funny to see everybody get back in regular mode after I damn near knocked the table over on national TV.



Dubcnn: They even gave Dubcnn a shout out at the end!

Traxamillion: Yeah! But they messed up the address though! But it was definitely a good look. And you know, Dubcnn always shows Traxamillion love, so I definitely wanna show Dubcnn some love and shout y'all out a big big big up baby!



Dubcnn: What you got on the plate for the future?

Traxamillion: We got "The Slapp Addict" coming out on August 22nd. And the same day on August 22nd I'ma be in Rasputins in Berkeley doing an autograph signing. And then August 23rd I'ma be doing an autograph signing at Rasputins in Campbell. Shortly after that we got the "The Slapp Addict" record release party that's gonna be on August 24th. It's gonna go down, red carpet event. It's gonna be big, it's gonna be bananas! It's gonna be something that the Bay has not seen in a while baby. I like to do it big, so this party is gonna be crazy man! Dubcnn needs to be definitely in the building man.

So yeah, I got that going. I also did a couple joints for PlayStation 3. I did a joint for NBA2K7. Me, the boy Fab, the boy Turf Talk. PlayStation 3 hit us up and they wanted us to get down on a Oakland joint for NBA2K7. So when that game comes out, there's some Bay Area shit on there. I also did another track for NBA 07 on PS3. And man, I'm just trying to take over the world. Hopefully the next thing coming up will be "The Slapp Addict 2". I'ma start working on that real soon, and that's gonna be bigger and better than the first one. And hopefully I'ma start getting features from like Lil' Wayne, Yung Joc, The Game. You know, just the bigger names, you feel me? That's my goal, I wanna do "The Slapp Addict 2" with some bigger names on it.